Patrick Devlin, Baron Devlin
Patrick Arthur Devlin, Baron Devlin, PC, FBA (25 November 1905 – 9 August 1992) was a British judge and legal philosopher. The second-youngest English High Court judge in the 20th century, he served as a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary from 1960 to 1964.
The Lord Devlin | |
|---|---|
Lord Devlin in 1962 by Walter Bird | |
| Lord of Appeal in Ordinary | |
| In office 11 October 1961 – 10 January 1964 | |
| Preceded by | The Lord Tucker |
| Succeeded by | The Lord Donovan |
| Lord Justice of Appeal | |
| In office 8 January 1960 – 11 October 1961 | |
| Succeeded by | Sir Kenneth Diplock |
| Justice of the High Court | |
| In office 14 October 1948 – 8 January 1960 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 25 November 1905 Chislehurst, Kent, England |
| Died | 9 August 1992 (aged 86) Pewsey, Wiltshire |
| Spouse |
Madeleine Hilda Oppenheimer
(m. 1932) |
| Children | 6 |
| Alma mater | Christ's College, Cambridge |
In 1959, Devlin headed the Devlin Commission, which reported on the State of Emergency declared by the colonial governor of Nyasaland. In 1985 he became the first British judge to write a book about a case he had presided over, the 1957 trial of suspected serial killer John Bodkin Adams. Devlin was involved in the debate about homosexuality in British law; in response to the Wolfenden report, he argued, contrary to H. L. A. Hart, that a common public morality should be upheld.
Devlin's daughter Clare, then aged 81, said in 2021 that her father had sexually abused her from the age of 7 until her teens.